Questions tagged [solar-sail]
Questions regarding a 'sail' that can be attached to spacecraft to harness the sun's radiation to propel a ship in one direction or another.
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Has viscous dampening been used to control oscillations from solar pressure vanes?
I understand solar “paddles” or “pressure vanes” have been used, similarly to the dihedral angle on an airplane, to maintain a spacecraft’s orientation to the sun. Mariner 4 is an example. What is the ...
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What prevents solar sails from being used?
Solar sails appear to be a very promising propulsion technology that seems to be able to meet the needs of deep space exploration in most cases. However, the reality is that there are very few solar ...
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Is it possible to use a solar sail in low Earth orbit, thanks to a good orientation of the sail?
I was reading this question: What is the closest to Earth you can expect lift from a solar sail? PearsonArtPhoto’s answer states that below 900 km, a solar sail cannot work because the drag on the ...
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Did the QB50 cubesat project actually demonstrate orbit raising via solar sail or solar panels (winning against drag)? If so, at what altitude?
This answer to Could satellite decommissioning be delayed or prevented with the use of solar sail technology? cites a paywalled Economist article. Most of the quote discusses differential drag (i.e. ...
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Could satellite decommissioning be delayed or prevented with the use of solar sail technology?
I'm looking into how viable solar sail manufacturing is for a company. So I'm hoping to understand if Solar Sails are viable as a method of delaying or preventing the decommissioning of satellites? ...
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How can I visualize the movement of a solar sail?
I am a physics teacher in an elementary school. Together with a student we started to investigate the motion of a solar sail. It shall be of 81 m² in size and 16 kg in mass around the sun at a ...
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Is there any formula for solar sail velocity?
I'm interested in solar sail, and I've researched the velocity achieved by solar sail. If we have only 4 sail parameters, can we make a formula for solar sail velocity? m:mass of sail, A:area of sail,...
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The accuracy of the formula that I created
$$ F = \frac{2RSA}{c} \sin^2 \theta $$ $$ F = am \ \ ↔ \ \ a = \frac{F}{m} $$ $$ S(r) = \frac{L}{4 \pi r^2c} $$ $$ \begin{align} a(r) & = \frac{F(r)}{m} \\ & = \frac{2RS(r)A}{mc} \sin^2 \...
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Does increased thermal emissivity decrease the effectiveness of a solar sail?
I am aware that increased emissivity in solar sails aids with heat reduction, however, I have done some research and found that the emissivity decreases the trajectory of the solar sail through the ...
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Solar Reflective Plasma Drive
I understand that solar sails have just recently been progressing to be of use. Could the solar sails be positioned to create a hyperbolic mirror to super heat a substance to produce propulsion along ...
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Has propulsion utilizing solar sail / drag effects of solar panels achieved orbital rendezvous? If yes, is there any utility for clearing space junk?
It has been proposed to use solar panels as solar sails and drag control by alternately feathering panels during different phases of orbit. It is claimed this can alter light pressure and drag enough ...
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NASA’s NIAC has awarded phase III funding for Diffractive Solar Sails. Demonstration mission in the works?
Diffractive lightsails use small gratings embedded in thin films to produce diffraction (which causes light to spread out when it passes through a narrow opening). Diffractive light sails are a ...
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Slowing down 16 Psyche using an enormous solar sail to reach the inner planets
I am writing a sci-fi story and would like my science as hard as possible. I was thinking of using the solar sail as a kind of sea anchor. Slowing down, the asteroid would move down to the inner ...
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Solar Turbines on the moon
Related to other questions about power generation on the moon. URL's will be added shortly... Given that force is experienced by objects hit by sunlight, such as a solar sail, would a turbine of some ...
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What is the optimal planetary sunshade arrangement?
To cool a planet down, one may place a sunshade between the planet and the Sun. On its own, this is not stable due to radiation pressure, so a simple scheme like a big circular piece of aluminium foil ...
